Sony speak out against 'remote gimmick'

Console wars have been with us since Game Boy and Game Gear went head to head (and looking back, what a hoot that was), the humble NES and Master System, and other quirky boxes of fun that were floating around in the early days of computer gaming.

But never has it been about so many dollars as it currently stands. The world video games market is worth a staggering sum; everyone wants a piece of that pie but most of all, the top three competing firms want the lion's share. But all's never fair in love and war; Sony's Jack Tretton (President & CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America) had this to say about the Wii:

"The controller is innovative, but the Wii is basically a repurposed GameCube. If you've built your console on an innovative controller, you have to ask yourself, Is that long term?"

It's interesting that Tretton believes the remote controller is the real threat from the Wii towards his Playstation empire. Interesting because let's face it; Sony backpedalled big time to try and combat the Wii-mote, releasing their own tilt sensitive joypad controller (which strangely resembled a late developed, PS2 joypad) to replace the boomerang model that was previously on all of their show shots. It had no tilt sensor; and in developing quite late they have also lost the rumble unit in the new one which does tilt. Unlike the Wii remote though, it doesn't detect in 3D space. It can tilt, and that's it. After using it, I didn't feel I was touching anything especially new, nor could it really add to my gaming experience.

At the end of the day, it's not the remote that makes the Wii so special; it's the target audience and who the Wii is being sold to. It's also the price point and lower tech spec, which means Nintendo are making pure cash hand over fist when they sell units, unlike their competitors who often lose money for hardware sales.

With the DS and Wii, Nintendo have tapped a market who were not previously buying any games at all. New money has poured into the gaming industry and Ninty have the lion's share at the moment. It's going to take a big shift in Sony and MS thinking to change that, and it won't have anything to do with clever joypads.